Onward and Upward
by Seisyll
Summary: "Sit down," The man's voice rang out, curt, deep, and commanding. Barry immediately sat down. And then he realised the man had been talking to his dog.
1. Man's Best Friend

"Hold on-" Barry ran forwards, slipping through the doors of the elevator. Catching his breath, he leaned against one side of the contraption, back of his head resting on the walls, eyes closed and face tilted to the ceiling.

This is ridiculous. I don't know why Captain Singh wanted me to talk to the acting CEO of Queen's Consolidated about their applied science division... I'm sure there are other scientists way more qualified to talk about this kind of business about volunteering and generous donations…

Barry ran his hands over his face, visibly stressed, as he was well aware of his talent for tripping over his words when nervous or pressured. And speaking to Oliver Queen about donations he may or may not be making to the science divisions of the Gem Cities was definitely stressing him out. He opened his eyes to peer at the only other person in the elevator with him. Flicking his eyes over to the panel quickly, he saw that the other man was also getting off at the top floor. That saved him from drawing attention to himself by walking over to the panel and pressing another button. Small victories. (Damn you, social anxiety.)

His gaze settled back on the large, muscled man he was with, studying him. He was tall! Barry, at about 6'1'', was very much used to being considered tall-but this guy had to be a good two or three inches taller than Barry, himself. He just looked bigger in general, compared to himself. If Barry was a string bean (as he was often told) then this man was a whole stack of steak. And if the set of the man's jaw and eyebrows said anything, ready to absolutely clobber anyone who said a word he didn't like. Or maybe he just didn't have his morning caffeine fix. Barry couldn't tell, but Barry hadn't had time to grab coffee himself, so he could very well just be projecting his own feelings.

The man was wearing a sharp form fitting sleeveless turtleneck sweater, black slacks, black shoes, with sunglasses perched at the top of his buzzed head, intricate tattoos scrolling down his arms, and burn scars adorning his large biceps. Barry squinted at the campy lanyard around his neck that read, Palmer Industries , but was then drawn to the leash held in the imposing man's hand that lead to a muscular pit bull. As if he couldn't be anymore intimidating, the man had a damn fully grown pitbull with bloody flames on his collar and-is that a skull dog tag? Barry didn't know whether to be amused or impressed.

The dog in question kept brushing himself against his owner's legs, tongue lolling out of it's mouth happily with it's tail hitting the side of the elevator with a loud thump thump thump . The dog tried to nestle his way between the taller man's legs and curl around his calves, hopping from paw to paw. Barry just quirked a smile at the dog and wondered if it would be in bad form to ask to pet him. It didn't look like it was a service dog as it was missing a harness but he couldn't be too sure. Barry was kind of half afraid to actually ask the man in question. Attractive, yes, but intimidating as hell. Could probably break Barry by flicking him. With his pinky. The room around them was punctuated by the clamour of the chain leash and dog tags, as well as the click of the closing elevator doors. Barry hoped the man hadn't caught him staring in the silence that had followed him entering the elevator.

"Sit down," The man's voice rang out, curt, deep, and commanding.

Barry immediately sat down.

And then he realised the man had been talking to his dog. Barry looked up, face heated and red, and the man looked back at him with wide eyes. The dog, distracted by Barry's movement, had not sat, and instead jumped over to Barry, pawing at his crossed legs excitedly.

Barry let his focus turn towards the pit bull, enthusiastically rubbing his hands over the dog. He paid special attention to behind it's ears, and studiously ignored the man's surprised gaze, really hoping it would distract from what an utter fucking mess he was this morning.

No dice: the man had started laughing at him.

Deep, rich, booming, and warm. That wasn't fair. The elevator pinged up three floors.

Barry looked up at the man who had let go of his dog's leash with a pout. He was holding his midsection with both hands as his head tipped back, face flooded with mirth. Barry then looked back down, cheeks and ears burning, and hid his face in the dog's neck.

They had gone up four more floors and he. Was still laughing. Barry huffed and the dog rolled over in his lap, exposing his stomach. Barry rubbed the dog's stomach obligingly, all the while still pouting at the man he didn't know. Not that he would admit he was pouting, no. Barry didn't pout, pshh.

The elevator halted, announcing that they had reached the top floor.  
Beefcake Man had stopped laughing-finally-and looked at him with amusement twinkling in his deep slate blue eyes as Barry gently dislodged his dog and scrambled to his feet.

Barry cleared his throat, and held out the dog's leash to the other man as the elevator doors opened.

The man took the leash from him and met Barry's gaze. A shark of a smile grew on his rugged face, "Good boy," he rumbled, delighted as he saw a flush flooding Barry's cheeks once more.

He then firmly said an instruction to his dog in-German? Causing the dog to flank him obediently as they walked out of the elevator, leaving Barry a flustered mess.

Barry snapped out of it as the elevator doors started to close again. Cursing, he pressed the button to keep the doors open and slipped out, righting his clothes with his hands.

Wonderful start to this meeting. Great. At least he probably wouldn't be seeing Attractive Beefcake Man again.

-x-

 **this was based off a tumblr screen shot/post entitled "today I have fucked up and made a fool of myself like never before" and if I can find the actual link, I'll post it.**

 **so I think this might be a two-three shot with an epilogue...maybe...**

 **Reviews are love.**


	2. What are the Odds

**A/N: Hi, my name is: uses every romcom cliche.**

He was wrong. Attractive Beefcake Man was smirking at him across the table where he sat next to Raymond Palmer.

Great.

"Ah, Mister Adams, is it?" Oliver _bloody_ Queen called out, gesturing to the last open seat around a rather large table with an already sizable crowd. _Iris is going to be so jealous… I wonder if he'd be up to take a picture? No, I bet he gets that all the time. Imagine me actually walking up and asking him, how lame. "It's not me, it's for my sister," totally bet he'd believe that._ _Not_. Barry ran his hands over his face. _I'm way over thinking this whole thing._

"Um, it's Allen." Barry mumbled the correction, slinking into the seat in between- _is that Martin Stein? Holy_ shit _that's awesome_ -and a regal looking woman he recognised from Mercury Labs, name tag reading _Tina McGee_.

"Right. Well. Now that we're all here..." Queen trailed off and Barry decidedly did not keep staring at Beefcake. Nope.

"Ray, you mind starting the presentation?" Queen asked, "This is your show," The blond reminded.

"Right!" Palmer stood up and flapped around, "Where is..."

Beefcake Man grabbed something off of the desk and held it out to Palmer.

"Ah! The pointer!"

Ray smiled brightly at the seemingly constantly amused man. Barry could have sworn he had been in a bad mood at first in the elevator. _It's because he's still internally laughing at me, isn't it. I'm doomed to be embarrassed in front if this man. Forever._

"Thanks Mick!"

 _Oh. He has a name. Well, of course he does._ Barry was doomed. Again. Developing crushes were easy to stop when the name of the person wasn't known.

Mick grunted in reply, slid his gaze back to Barry, and raised his eyebrows.

Barry broke the gaze and tried to concentrate on an excitable Ray Palmer, who had gone off track in conversation and was now explaining something completely different, waving around the extended pointer. At one point, he had almost hit the blonde ponytail girl in glasses seated on Queen's other side had she not ducked in time.

Palmer walked back towards the other side of Queen and stood in front of his empty seat, waving the pointer again. Barry watched as he made a dangerous arc near Mick, who just plucked the pointer out of Palmer's hand and nonchalantly set it back on the desk. Oliver Queen seemed genuinely confused.

 _I don't blame him... If I were paying attention to what he was saying instead of being distracted by his movements I probably would be too. Something about space star power cores and size alteration? What does this have to do with chemistry and donations?_

Palmer kept talking in excited movements before he cut himself off, looking down at his empty hands.

Barry hid his smile with the back of his fingers, _Did he seriously not notice Mick take it from him?_ Barry then studiously ignored how nice it was to put a name with the other man's face.

"Project donations, Boy Scout." Mick prompted.

"Oh! Oh yeah!"

And there he went again, droning on.

 _I guess this is what they mean when they say Ray Palmer's the eccentric billionaire type_ , Barry leaned forward and squinted, thoughts turning introspective. _Is this how my friends feel when I go off on tangents? I can't possibly be this bad…_

"Alright, time for a break. We'll come back in 15 minutes. In the meantime, help yourself to the break room down the hall, coffee, biscuits, the whole deal." Queen got in at a break in his business partner's one-sided conversation.

"Caffeine? Oh sweet baby Jesus, how I have missed the nectar of life." Barry had been startled out of day dreaming by the announcement and spoke without thinking. He now paused, seeing Queen's lips quirk up to one side at his outburst. He glanced over at Mick to see his head propped up with one hand and scratching the dog with the other, looking amused at Barry, who had stood out of his chair with his exclamation and was. Still awkwardly standing there. _Someone save me from this._

Barry eloquently squeaked and then gracefully (he tripped twice on the way: once over a person's shoe and the second over an empty chair) slinked out of the room.

-x-

He was on his third cup of coffee in the break room by the time he was bothered again. Barry had just been loitering at the counter with his back facing the wall in the break room corner nearest to the coffee pot. Despite having his back against the wall to be able to not be sneaked up on (an unconscious habit before Iris teased him about it), he had zoned out, letting Beefcake Man- _Mick_ -walk on over to him undetected.

Barry tells himself later that him flinching to Mick's sudden proximity was due to his amazing reflexes, not because he was caught off guard. These 'amazing' reflexes didn't stop the coffee he was holding from being scalding and spilling over his hands. He sucked in a breath at the pain and accidentally clinched his fist, punching holes through the styrofoam cup full of coffee and effectively making a bigger mess. _How embarrassing_ … Hazel eyes flicked up from his cup to see Mick righting himself from leaning against the coffee machine counter.

"You okay there?" Mick asked, looking equal parts amused and concerned.

"Yeah-it's just-I spilled my, well it's kind of," Barry gestured with the hand holding the dripping styrofoam cup, "A bit of a loss cause," He trailed off and let his eyes dart around the room, looking for a trashcan.

Mick pressed his hand lightly against Barry's upper back and turned him gently him towards the trashcan that was conveniently placed near a sink. Trusting Barry to follow him without more steering, Mick ducked around the former and stepped on the foot lever to open the trash bin.

Barry, flushing from the heat on his hands as well as the phantom heat from where Mick's hand was before pulled back, quickly threw his botched cup away and made to grab the roll of paper towels on the counter near the sink to clean up the trail of coffee on the floor.

"Hold on, Doll. Go on and wash your hands, I'll wipe up the mess on the floor." Mick took the roll from Barry's hands and made a shoo-ing motion towards the sink with it. Barry froze at the endearment, feeling his ears heat up, before he caught the rest of what Mick had said.

Frowning, Barry asked, "Are you sure? I'm the one who-um." He cut himself off as Mick raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Right, I'll just," Barry squeaked out, turning to the sink and washing his hands as Mick stooped down on the floor with a bottle of cleaner.

 _I can't tell if this is more or less embarrassing than what happened on the elevator. What an amazing string of first impressions I'm making on this man._ Barry hooked his hand around his neck after he dried off his hands, feeling out of place as Mick threw away the soiled towels and brushed past him to wash his own hands.

"I, um. Thank you," Barry got out, embarrassment curling in his stomach for not saying so before hand.

"Don't mention it," Mick grumbled good naturedly and made his way across the room to the coffee counter. Barry leaned back against the sink to watch him, but sprang back as he felt residual water on the counter seep into his shirt. _Great_. He shuffled sideways a few steps away from the sink and leaned back again, crossing his arms over his chest, watching with curiosity as Mick pulled out two styrofoam cups and filled them both with coffee.

"How do you like yours?" Mick spoke.

Barry furrowed his brows after no one answered before he realised, "Me?"

Mick turned to look at Barry over his shoulder, an exasperated expression on his face.

"Oh. Just… a spoon of creamer and six sugars, please." Barry informed him. "...Thank you," He tacked on a few seconds later, seeing Mick grab tiny tongs and letting sugar cubes plop into the drink that was presumably for him. Barry slinked across the room and stopped a respectable distance away from Mick, still watching the man's- _really nice_ -hands spoon in cream and stir with a spoon that looked tiny in his larger...everything.

"You like your coffee sweet?" Mick asked him, holding out the coffee to him, and Barry moved to take it when Mick added, warm eyes locked onto Barry's, "You seem plenty sweet enough to me without additives."

Barry would have dropped the cup if Mick had not still had it firmly in his grasp, which Barry was grateful for. "I-um, th-thank you." Barry stumbled out, face flushing red as Mick looked on with poorly concealed delight. Their fingers brushed together as Barry took and secured the cup from the larger man. Mick opened his mouth to speak, when he was interrupted.

"Heyya, Mickey! It's about time to continue the meeting," Ray bounded across the room from the food table and bumped his shoulder with the broader man, all smiles.

Barry's eyes flicked back and forth between them, "Oh, right-I'll see you, uh, in the boardroom then." He rushed out, and fled the room. If he had looked back he would have seen Mick throw a glare at his employer.

-x-

 **Sorry for not updating in a while. Things went crazy here, what with Harvey and me starting up classes again this semester. (On that note my diet is primarily tea and granola bars. Yay college life.)**

 **I'm almost tempted to drag out every cliche I can think of now... Cue one of them running into the rain and the other catching them. Too much? ...probably.**

 **Enjoy and thanks for reading! Tell me what you think! :)**


	3. Falling For You (Literally)

If the coffee he was sipping on was the best he'd had in weeks, it totally wasn't because of who made it for him. It was because Iris and Eddie were trying to get him to cut back on caffeine in the long run-they'd been watching his intake like hawks. Eddie at their work and Iris would switch his orders to decaf when it was her shift in Jitter's. Which Barry didn't appreciate, given he was practically dependent on caffeinated coffee and prone to migraines when he was deprived of it.

In Barry's opinion it was way too late to "fix". It was an addiction he could track back to middle school, and because of it Joe was amazed when he hit multiple growth spurts throughout high school and early college. _"Coffee stunts your growth" my ass_ , Barry thought, idly, slipping into his seat. He made sure to be among the first people in the room this time.

 _Although_ , Barry's eyes trailed after Mick's form walking around to the head of the table, _I'm sure I wouldn't mind being addicted to something else, as well._

Of course, Mick choose that time in Barry's inner monologue to lock eyes with him, causing Barry's face to heat up and duck his head down, staring resolutely into his coffee.

Queen and Palmer started the meeting once more when everyone found their seats. The people around the table came up one at a time to speak about why they thought the donations should go to their organisation or cause. After a few fairly easy to follow presentations, it was Barry's turn.

"Mr. Allen? You are representing the educational chemistry departments of Keystone and Central, correct?" Queen asked.

"Yessir." Barry intoned, politely.

"You've never done this sort of thing before, have you?" The blonde to his right asked.

"I haven't." Barry confirmed, shuffling through his note cards and standing. In the motion of standing he nearly knocked over his coffee cup. In the quick motion he used to stop that from spilling, he had let go of the note cards and they scattered on the floor. _Good thing I had the foresight and numbered them._

Barry just awkwardly shuffled his cards and went to the front of the room. _Don't trip, don't trip,_ he mentally chanted.

"Qualifications?" Oliver Queen asked once he straightened the stack of papers in front of him, giving Barry an expectant look.

"Right. Uh. I double majored in chemistry and criminology. I did my undergrad in Sun State in Keystone. I recently went back to get my doctorate in chemistry and will be graduating with that this semester at Central Tech. I also work full time as a forensic analyst for the CCPD." Barry answered when he took his spot near the computer and projector. He accepted the presentation clicker from Palmer and pulled a flash drive out of his pocket, plugging it into his computer and pulling up his visual aid for his speech. _Credentials over with, now to transition onto a relevancy statement_ , Barry shuffled through his cards just to realise he hadn't jotted one down. _Looks like I'm winging my introduction, then._

"Sounds like you have a lot on your plate, Mr. Allen." Queen remarked.

Barry shuffled awkwardly, having opened up his powerpoint and was trying to find a good place to stand near the screen without being in the way, "It...helps when you love what you do. Which is why I'm pretty passionate about this donation program you and Mr. Palmer are rolling out. I think it will greatly benefit these those who are interested in learning specifics for their education and having hands-on experience will really give those students a head over than being limited to just studying theorems and book equations. Potential employers prefer to have their prospects to have experience. However, that is difficult to do as the chemicals and other materials needed are somewhat difficult to keep in stock, especially in smaller community colleges."

"I suppose there's no use in asking if you're ready to present." Oliver questioned with a quirk to his lips.

"Oh, yeah, no-uh, sir." Barry flushed and looked back down at his cards in one hand and fiddling with the remote in his other.

"Go ahead and present then, buddy." Palmer smiled.

Barry somehow managed to give a good presentation despite his words not flowing as easily as his initial opening statements and slipping into speaking much faster than usual as he did when nervous. On the brightside, the people in attendance-those who hadn't zoned out-looked fairly impressed. Best of all, Palmer and Queen looked impressed.

"Thank you, Mr. Allen, that will be all. And since Mr. Allen was the last presentation we could fit in today, everyone is dismissed. If anyone has further questions you may stay after or shoot an email to the addresses highlighted on your pamphlets. Thank you." Queen concluded.

"Right." Barry said mostly to himself, and edged around the table carefully, trying to get out of the front of the room during Oliver's closing speech.

Unfortunately, he miscalculated how far out Mick's dog's leash went out, caught his foot in it, and was sent careening into Mick's lap. And, because the world still hated Barry, Mick's unfinished coffee wobbled off the table and into their collective laps.

Mick's dog jumped up and licked at the coffee dripping down Barry's pant leg. _I wonder if that's good for him..?_ Barry thought, looking at the dog with concern.

"Heatwave, _platz_!" Mick rumbled at his dog, who immediately complied. Barry flushed, now remembering where exactly he was, and pitched forwards to grab at the meeting table to pull himself up, hoping to make this less embarrassing for the both of them.

"Sorry-I'm," Barry stumbled out, and felt Mick's hands curl around his hip and forearm respectively, helping him to stand up.

"No luck with coffee today, huh, Doll?"

Barry winced and glanced down at his dress pants, "Apparently not, I'm really sorry? I'm just-God, I'm a mess." He rambled, stooping down and picking up the abused styrofoam cup.

"Here-" The blonde girl had apparently left the room and came back with more paper towels, "Usually it's me being a clutz, so this is refreshing." She paused when Barry just blinked blankly at her.

"Not that it's a good thing! I would have been embarrassed out of my mind. Kudos to you for keeping your cool. I'm Felicity, by the way." She went on.

Barry bit his lip and took the paper towels from her and passed them directly to Mick, deciding that his clothes were basically a lost cause. Felicity seemed to agree and she stepped around him to help Mick mop up the mess. It made Barry feel marginally better that his own pants caught the brunt of the coffee attack instead of Mick's.

Mick tried to catch Barry's gaze around Felicity, but Barry had turned away and was trying to catalog an easy escape to keep whatever dignity he had left in tact.

He made his way around the mostly empty-by-now table and pulled his book bag from under his chair, tucking his note cards and flash drive in it before picking up his lukewarm coffee and deciding on chugging it in one go. He shouldered his bag and threw his and Mick's cup away.

"So, Barry-Can I call you Barry?" Palmer asked, walking over to Barry with a serene smile as some strangling guests surrounded Queen and while Felicity took care of Mick's coffee mess on the table.

Barry promptly choked on his last swallow. Palmer probably thought he was helping when he thumped him heartily on the back but it was really slightly irritating than anything else. Not that Barry was going to tell him that.

"Yeah?" Barry got out, voice hoarse.

"I really was impressed by your piece. Do expect a call later. And if Professor Frye hasn't already thanked you for coming in his place, take my gratitude as well. I know it's hard coming up with last minute presentations but you were a great pick." Palmer gushed.

Barry smiled despite himself, "Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you." He then made a show of plucking at the coffee stains on his white shirt, "But I think I'll have to take my leave now. The shower hotel is calling my name."

"Oh! How were the hotel accommodations?" Palmer inquired.

"Lovely, thanks," Barry said quickly, eyes flicking behind Palmer to see Mick standing up with a wad of soiled paper towels, "I _really_ have to go now, it was great talking to you." He rushed out, nodding at the billionaire, and then absconded.

 _I'm going to shower, sleep, and hopefully be able to push all of this embarrassing mortification that was today into a mental corner and forget about it._

-x-

"That was certainly the most entertaining business meeting I've been in." Oliver commented, after everyone else left.

Felicity laughed, "Especially that adorable CSI." She passed a bottle of water and the last of the paper towels to Mick, who used them to dab at his shoes.

Ray shook his head, smiling, "Absolutely agree-and Mickey here," he went to nudge Mick, but the larger man leaned out of the way at the last second, and Ray had to catch himself on the desk. Ray shot him a pout, and continued, "Seemed to be interested." The happy pitbull lounging beneath Mick's chair barked in some sort of affirmation that made Ray beam and ruffle the dog's ears.

"He ran out before I could get his number," Mick offered, with a shrug. He seemed to be the only one out of the four still in the room who winced when Felicity squealed.

* * *

 **Funfact: Heatwave absolutely howled along with Felicity's excited shrieking.**

 **So the rest of this fic is pretty much outlined, so if anyone has cute lil cliches they definitely want to see lemme know and I'll see about fitting them in! If not in this fic, maybe in the next if inspiration strikes. Thanks for being patient with me. :)**

 _Guest (Sep. 10): You're gold!_

 _Guest (Sep. 11): I do plan on continuing and I'm very excited to share the rest of this with you guys._

 _Guest (Sep. 20): Thank you!_


	4. Abort Mission

**Ch. Summary: Barry loves his best friend, Cisco. He really does. But sometimes he wants to jam his hands into a paper shredder instead of enduring Cisco's teasing.**

 **A/N: Another rom-com cliche hit: random time skips! But they still think about each other, apparently!**

 **More Barry's point of view than anything else.**

-x-

A week later found Barry back in Central City, walking down the sidewalk to Jitter's with Cisco on a rare day off.

"I can never step foot in Starling or Palmer Industries. Ever," Barry bemoaned, face in his hands.

"So you made a little bit of a fool of yourself. Eh. Happens to the best of us," Cisco waved off, used to his friend's dramatics after so many years of friendship with him and having roomed with Barry since their freshman year of college.

"He literally said 'jump' and I asked how high. Well, technically he said sit and I did. Point still stands. Or, didn't stand. You know what I mean." Barry dropped his hands and looked at Cisco imploringly.

"Some guys are into that." Cisco said, instead of a (Cisco patented) random bout of wisdom or encouragement. Frankly, Barry was disappointed, but not surprised.

"Cisco!" Barry hissed anyway, feeling heat in his cheeks.

"Not kidding." Cisco teased, nudging Barry with his elbow and wiggling his eyebrows, "Anyway, I went on that date with that spitfire I was telling you about. It was amazing! _She_ was amazing," Cisco gushed.

Barry wanted to feel jealous and annoyed, but all he could feel was exasperated fondness for his best friend. It was about time something in Cisco's romantic department went right. (The previous girlfriend of his had been apparently married to her so-called soulmate for four years and didn't think to tell Cisco. After half a year, one might add. Not to mention Cisco had a knack for attracting dangerous woman. Not always the best thing.)

"At least one of our love lives is successful." Barry conceded, squinting up at the overcast sky, "I forgot my umbrella in my lab…" He switched topics, lamenting. The one day he paid attention to the weather forecast and brought his umbrella to work, he forgets it when he actually goes outside. Amazing.

"It's okay, _hermano_ , I brought mine," Cisco said, twirling his umbrella around by the handle, "I gotchu." He assured, making an aborted finger gun gesture that made Barry roll his eyes fondly.

.

.

Having arrived at Jitter's, Barry, with his longer legs that Cisco regularly complained about, reached the door first and opened it with a flourish toward his shorter friend. Cisco gave a half curtsey and strolled in, Barry following behind, and letting the door shut behind them.

"Speak of the devil," Cisco joked, elbowing Barry and nodding towards an admittedly attractive brunette, "There's my spitfire," He finished, and Barry would have seen Cisco's heart in his eyes if the men standing in line _next_ to the brunette hadn't caught his attention. The two also attractive men, one of whom looked to be very much like- _shit_. Just what _are_ the odds?

" _Cisco-_ " Barry hissed, edging back to the door, his fingers on the handle, really wanting to escape before he was noticed. Mission: abort.

"Hey, Lisa!" Cisco barrelled on, capturing the group's attention. And, great, mission failed; thanks Cisco. Barry sighed heavily and trailed helplessly behind his best friend.

"Hello there, Cisco." Lisa smiled coyly, "Meet my big brother, Len, and his best friend, Mick." She turned to her brother, "This is the cutie I was telling you about. Perfect mannered, good listener, not to mention easy on the eyes, huh?" Cisco just smiled at her in a sickenly cute way while Barry tried to figure out what to do with his existence. He settled on awkwardly crossing his arms and settling his weight to one side in what he hoped looked semi-casual, and simultaneously also sort of hiding behind Cisco. Which didn't work, because _duh, taller. I'm so dumb_ , thought Barry, mentally kicking himself.

Len looked over Cisco appraisingly, making the engineer uncomfortable with the ice of his stare, "Pleasure." He drawled after a couple of long and (to Cisco) excruciating seconds.

Mick's eyes, however, were heated and had not left Barry since Cisco called out. Barry went to great pains to keep from squirming in embarrassment, studiously avoiding Mick's stare.

Cisco looked over at Barry, "Oh, Lisa, this is Barry, my best science bro," he introduced, somehow not noticing Barry's discomfort, and pulling the taller man forward by the elbow to stand next to him instead of behind him.

Len's eyebrows raised and he glanced at Mick, communicating something between the two, before his gaze settled on Barry once more, looking amused.

"Oh. Oh _dude_ , this is Mick? As in beefcake man?" Cisco blurted, noticing the exchange, and having heard Mick's name earlier in the week, amidst Barry's embarrassed ranting.

"Cisco!" Barry admonished.

"Oops. My bad. I kinda feel embarrassed for you," Cisco laughed lightly.

Barry just glared at Cisco with a pout on his lips, trying to ignore the sickening flipping his stomach was doing and the heat in his face.

Lisa looked on gleefully, "Aw, you have cute friends, too!"

"Yeah he's adorable, but Barry's a bit of a hot mess," Cisco said, teasing, elbowing Barry lightly.

Barry scoffs, "I'm not that bad." He defended himself weakly, crossing his arms over his chest once more.

"You're a walking disaster, Barry. You know this, I know this, anyone who speaks with you for fifteen minutes knows this," Cisco snorted, punching Barry's shoulder. Even knowing Cisco was just teasing, the corners of Barry's eyes burned anyway.

"I mean, it's a miracle you haven't scared your coworkers away. But I guess they're desensitised to your particular brand of peculiar. Good luck meeting someone new romantically, though, dude. You'd probably spill your drink on them or something-they'd get mad, not call back. All that jazz." Cisco continued, blasé.

Barry's ears and cheeks burned in embarrassment and he stared resolutely at the floor, feeling his eyes well up traitorously with tears of frustration. Unfortunately Cisco, by the fact of being his closest friend, knew him too well. While Barry had no problem trading quips and friendly roasting with the long haired dork, Barry was already too sensitive on the topic Cisco was teasing about, as of recent events. Somehow, the Latino man had hit the nail on the head. With an entire anvil.

"...Oh, dude," Cisco began after a moment of silence, reaching out to touch him again, but Barry pulled away, "Are you crying? Shit, sorry, I didn't mean-"

Barry turned around and marched out of Jitter's with more grace and agility than he had in the past week put together.

-x-

 **Barry's soft**

 **So this was going to be the second to last chapter... but then 4Illuminati gave me an idea for more content so there's... there's gonna be more. Also, canthelpmyselves is to thank for the possible rom-com 'rain scene' next chapter.**

 **Someone should guess who Cisco's ex is /eye emoji**

 **Your reviews give me life ok**  
 **I make the most embarrassing squealing noises when I get any notifications, like y'all make my day.**


End file.
